Many of my students have difficulties telling stories. When looking at a book together, even books they love and have seen many times, they often struggle to understand what they are reading and cannot therefore retell the story in any sequence. A great method I often use with those students is called Colourful Semantics.
What is Colourful Semantics?
Colourful Semantics is an approach aimed at helping children develop grammar and meaning of phrases and sentences. We help children identify WHO is the subject in a story, what is he/she/it DOING to WHAT and WHERE. There are lots of colour coded stages but we tend to start with the basic 4:
WHO = ORANGE
DOING = YELLOW
WHAT = GREEN
WHERE = BLUE
Once a student is accomplished at this level, we move on to different colour codes for describing words (adjectives), connecting words (with/together/and/therefore) feeling words (PINK), timing words (BROWN) eg. when, tomorrow, last week etc.
Colourful Semantics is a really useful method and helps children to organise their sentences. It also helps me knowing how to guide a student in thinking about the story.
The approach can be used with children with a range of Speech and Language Needs, such as:
Developmental Delay / Disorder
Autistic Spectrum Condition
Down Syndrome
Any other syndromes and related speech and language delays
General Literacy difficulties
There are a wide range of benefits to using this approach and I use it in my therapeutic work with children of around 3 years plus. Below is a little video which shows how I use it with this student who has general language difficulties associated with Autism. One of the main benefits with this student is that seeing the Cue Cards helps her to use a much wider range of vocabulary than she would ordinarily generate. Her sentences are getting longer and she is more able to answer questions. In general, I find it useful to help with storytelling and to guide us through the story in a sequence.
There are many on-line games these days that have incorporated the Colourful Semantics Approach. Once a child is familiar with the basic colour scheme then gradually the visual prompts can be reduced to using verbal prompts.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
Is our student ready to move to NLA 2 (Natural Language Acquisition stage 2)?
We know that the GLP (Gestalt Language Processor) will move into the next stage when they are ready. But are they now ready you might think? When are they ready? How do I know? If you are not sure whether your child is ready to move forward then go and see your GLP trained Speech Therapist. Together you can work out what the next steps are and how to help your child settle into NLA 2. It’s very exciting!!
Tip
The first useful tip: keep a language sample of phrases your child says. This is very helpful!
You might want to check with your Speech Therapist and offer some language sampling you have taken so they can help you figure out where your child is currently. Always keep an Utterance Journal that you can share with your Speech Therapist and with others who look after your child.
Basically, we want to listen out for phrases our child says that you or nursery don’t say routinely; that way you can presume that this is not an echo but a mixing together of two chunks of gestalts. Watch out for those coco melon phrases though: double check it really isn’t an NLA 1 gestalt that is copied verbatim from a favourite you tube video.
You can best support your child best by listening, and thus figuring out what your child is TRYING TO SAY. Often your child might skip over the parts of gestalts they don’t want to say. This is common in older kids who have long gestalts, sometimes even whole episodes or whole stories!
Try and tease out their shorter mitigations and then focus on practicing and modelling those as they are so much more useful!
So back to our question: are they ready?
Are their gestalts covering a variety of situations and contexts?
Make a note in your journal to see what the backgrounds are to each phrase you ear, so for example:
Transitioning: ‘it’s time for the park’ ‘what’s next’ ‘shoes on’
Bed Time: ‘we need to wash’ ‘let’s get in (bath/bed)’ ‘ready for our book’
Toilet/nappy: ‘we need the potty’ ‘where’s the potty’ ‘let’s wash hands’
Mealtime: ‘time to eat’ ‘go get a spoon’ ‘yummy num num’
Park/going out: ‘look at the squirrel’ ‘funny doggy’ ‘I wanna swing’
At the shops: ‘let’s get the trolley’ ‘lots of veggies’ ‘no tomatoes’ ‘ooh long queue’ ‘back to the car’
And… does the child use the phrases for a variety of functions?
labelling
providing information
calling out
affirming
requesting
protesting
directing
We need to offer lots of similar language models so that in their own time our children can extract/mitigate useful phrases for what they want to express. The more similar utterances a child hears around him the more he/she can discover the communalities. Once the child has a small range of phrases, he/she can mix them up and create semi-original own phrases.
If the answer is YES!! our child has perhaps not all but a range of functions and a range of situations where they use a variety of easily mitigable gestalts then yes they are ready for moving to stage 2 of NLA!
Hurrah!
Keeping a journal of what your child is saying and in what circumstance is crucial to help with our ongoing detective work!
Next time I will be looking at how we can help our NLA 2 GLP produce even more of their own mix and match phrases.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
Apraxia or dyspraxia is a difficulty in motor planning, which sometimes can be seen in both gross and fine motor skills, as well as speech. Gross motor refers to difficulties in coordinating the whole body (e.g., bumping into things frequently, often falling over hurting themselves or others through being “clumsy” or unsteady). Fine motor movements refer to smaller, more precise movements (e.g., difficulties doing anything with their hands such as holding a spoon or pen).
In Dyspraxia of Speech, instead of seeing a coordinated smooth way of talking, we see the articulators (tongue, lips, cheeks) and voice coordinating very smoothly. The voice can be very quiet or very loud. Muscle tone can be weaker at times. Speech sounds are very unintelligible, with a flat voice that can sound forced. It may be that the timings of verbalisation appear random and that children can say a certain word once and never again. This is often what we hear from parents.
It is interesting to note that many of our autistic clients are either non-speaking or are reluctant speakers. Sometimes they say a word once and then never again. Others say lots of words but the words are very hard to make out. Did you know that about 40% of autistic people have verbal dyspraxia? (Richard, 1997). Because the problem is one of motor planning, not of automatic motor execution, once a plan has become automatic, it is easier to get back to it and this is why we often see repetitive patterns that can be called ‘stims’ (Marge Blanc, 2004).
How can Speech and Language Therapy help?
Children with verbal dyspraxia can make great progress!
We provide frequent and appropriate speech movement opportunities and with time and the right support, children will move forward and begin to speak more fluently and with greater intelligibility. It is important to know this can take time.
We provide Oral Motor Therapy using a variety of approaches to practise breathing, vocalising on the outbreath, and sequencing our speech movements.
We design carefully tailored programmes focusing on words that have a lot of power (e.g., NO, GO, UP, IN, OUT, LET’S GO, STOP).
We offer shared enjoyment, and laughter. This helps a child find their voice. Other ways of finding our voices include singing or humming, or even yelling/shouting!
The most difficult phase of verbal dyspraxia is initiation, that is to start talking, to start producing a word. Frequent “automatic” repetition supports children with initiation because it removes the element of “thinking to start”. I often ask a child to repeat a word 5-10 times (with rewards at the end. A little game works well). You can see that with repetition the act of initiating is taken out of the equation as you are “on a roll “as it were.
Once a child starts to find their voice, we will be able to hear them talk lot… And if we give them credit and presume that what they are saying has meaning, we will find in time that their words become clearer and more intelligible. If we listen carefully, we can detect real words and phrases.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
Spinning and swinging are often observed behaviours in autistic children. While these actions might seem repetitive or unusual to some, they serve crucial functions for these children. Understanding the underlying reasons for spinning and swinging can provide valuable insights into how to support autistic children and incorporate these activities into therapeutic settings.
Why do children spin?
Spinning is a common sensory-seeking activity in autistic children. Sensory seeking means that the child actively looks for sensory input to regulate their nervous system. Here’s why spinning can be beneficial:
Vestibular input: Spinning stimulates the vestibular system, which is located in the inner ear and is responsible for balance and spatial orientation. For children with sensory processing difficulties, spinning can provide essential sensory input.
Calming effect: For some children, spinning can be a self-regulating strategy. The rhythmic motion can help to calm the nervous system and reduce anxiety.
Sensory exploration: Spinning allows children to explore their sensory experiences. It can help them understand their bodies and how they move in space.
The allure of swinging
The rhythmic back-and-forth motion of a swing offers several benefits:
Vestibular input: Like spinning, swinging stimulates the vestibular system, helping to improve balance and coordination.
Proprioceptive input: Swinging provides proprioceptive input, which is the sense of where your body is in space. This information is crucial for motor planning and coordination.
Calming and organising: The rhythmic motion of swinging can have a calming effect on the nervous system, helping to regulate emotions and improve focus.
Social interaction: Swinging can be a shared experience, fostering social interaction and communication.
Facilitating communication: While swinging, children are so much more relaxed and open to communication. The rhythmic motion can also help facilitate singing, humming, listening to my singing, non-verbal communication for sure but also more verbal and mouth words can be heard from children on my swing. If nothing else, it is so fun and helps build trust and rapport between my child and me.
Therapeutic Activities Combining Spinning, Swinging, and Speech and Language Therapy
Here are some therapeutic techniques that I use at London Speech and Feeding to combine movement with speech and language development:
Swinging with verbal prompts: While the child is swinging, I provide simple verbal prompts such as ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘fast’, and ‘slow.’ This helps to develop receptive language skills and improve auditory processing.
Sensory-motor play: I like to combine swinging with tactile activities like playing with textured balls or bean bags. This can facilitate language development through descriptive language, words and scripts like: ‘that’s so soft’, ‘oooh tickle tickle tickle!’
Storytelling on the swing: Often I manage to create a story while the child is swinging. This can improve narrative skills, vocabulary, and imagination. Recently I did the ‘Tiger who came to tea’ story and each time the swing stopped the tiger came and ‘ate some more cakes’ and ‘tickled their tummy’ whilst eating. It may make not much sense but my child loved it and we had ‘more tiger eat more’.
Song and rhyme time: Often I sing the ‘rumble in the jungle’ song while swinging my child to enhance phonological awareness, rhythm, and timing.
Visual supports always help: I use LAMP Words for Life AAC support during swinging and show core words such as: ‘go’ / ‘stop’/ ‘more’ / ‘tickle tickle’ etc. #lampwordsforlife #aac
Movement-based activities: We can incorporate activities that require sequencing, such as imitating animal movements or following simple commands while swinging. This can improve motor planning and language comprehension.
Feeding and Dysphagia (Swallowing) Specialist The London Speech and Feeding Practice
The London Speech and Feeding Practice
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
Picture this. A small dinosaur is stomping across a wooden floor. A tiny teacup is being filled with imaginary juice. Someone, probably you, has just been told very firmly that you are the baby and you must go to sleep now.
To the outside world, this is just play. Joyful, chaotic, completely ordinary toddler play.
But for a child with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), also known as verbal dyspraxia, what is happening inside a well-designed pretend play session is anything but ordinary. It is, in fact, some of the most powerful motor speech therapy we have.
Let me explain why.
First, a quick reminder: what is dyspraxia?
Childhood Apraxia of Speech is a motor speech disorder. The difficulty does not lie in the muscles of the mouth, those are perfectly capable. The difficulty lies in the brain’s ability to plan and sequence the precise movements needed to produce speech sounds consistently and accurately.
A child with CAS knows what they want to say. The message is there. But somewhere between the intention and the execution, the plan breaks down. Words come out differently each time, or not at all. It is effortful, unpredictable, and for many children, deeply frustrating.
What this means for therapy is important: CAS requires motor learning, not just language stimulation. And motor learning has very specific conditions under which it thrives.
Repetition is the medicine and pretend play delivers it without the child noticing
One of the most well-established principles of motor learning is that new movement patterns need to be practised many, many times before they become reliable. Think of learning to ride a bike, or to touch-type. Repetition is how the motor system builds consistency.
For speech, this means a child needs many opportunities to attempt a target word or phrase within a single session. In a formal drilling exercise, this quickly becomes tedious and dysregulating, especially for young children. After five attempts at ‘go’, most three-year-olds have mentally left the building.
But inside a pretend play scenario? The word ‘go’ appears naturally and meaningfully dozens of times. The car goes. The train goes. Ready, steady, go. Go to sleep. Go there doggie. Every repetition is embedded in a moment that makes sense to the child, which means they are motivated to keep going, and the practice is accumulating without any sense of effort or demand.
A relaxed brain learns better
There is a reason I tend not to sit a dyspraxic child at a table with flashcards and ask them to repeat after me. It is not because I lack structure. Every session I run has clear targets and intentional design. It is because we know that anxiety and pressure actively interfere with motor learning.
When a child feels observed, corrected, or under pressure to perform, the cognitive load increases and the very motor planning system we are trying to support becomes less accessible. The errors increase. The frustration escalates. The session unravels.
Pretend play, by contrast, creates a state of engaged, relaxed absorption. The child is leading. They are safe. They are having fun. In this state, the brain is far more receptive to new motor patterns being laid down. I am not asking the child to perform speech. I am simply being present, following their lead, and slipping in carefully chosen models at exactly the right moments.
Child-led play gives us the child’s own words to target
Another reason pretend play works so beautifully for children with dyspraxia is that it tells us exactly which words matter most to this particular child, right now, today. When a child reaches for the toy telephone and hands it to me with enormous expectation, I know that ‘hello’ is a word worth targeting in this moment. When they are clearly trying to tell me that the baby needs feeding, ‘more’ and ‘eat’ have instant, genuine relevance.
Targeting words a child is already motivated to say means the communication attempt is coming from them. And a self-initiated attempt, even an approximation, is neurologically far more valuable than a prompted imitation.
What this looks like in practice
In the short video clip below you can see this dynamic in action. Notice how the session looks relaxed and playful on the surface. The child is absorbed in the pretend play scenario we have created together.
Notice, though, what is happening underneath:
the consistent, gentle modelling of target words
the use of Makaton signs alongside speech to provide an additional sensory pathway
the visual mouth cues that give the child a roadmap for how a sound is shaped
and running through all of it, the repetition. The same words, again and again, wrapped in play.
This is not therapy disguised as play. It is therapy that is play, because for a child with dyspraxia, those two things are not in opposition. They are, in fact, perfectly aligned.
If you are concerned about your child’s speech and wondering whether verbal dyspraxia might be a factor, please do not hesitate to get in touch. I would love to help you find some answers.
Sonja McGeachie
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
If you’ve found yourself wondering ‘Why can my child say a word one day, but not at all the next?’ it might be that your child has a motor speech difficulty. This means the challenge isn’t that your child doesn’t know what they want to say; it’s that their brain finds it harder to plan and coordinate the movements needed for clear speech. This speech difficulty is called Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
In this post, I’ll explain what CAS can look like in 2–5 year olds, what an assessment usually involves, and what you can start doing at home to support your child without turning life into ‘speech homework all day long’.
What is childhood apraxia of speech (CAS)?
Children with CAS often have lots to communicate about (and strong ideas!) but their speech may come out as:
Unclear
inconsistent
hard to ‘copy’ on demand
frustrating for them and for you
CAS is not caused by laziness and it is not a parenting issue. It is also not something children simply ‘grow out of’ without support. But with the right therapy approach, children can absolutely build clearer speech over time.
Many families come to me after months (or years) of being told:
‘She’ll talk when she is ready’
‘He’s just shy’
‘It’s probably a speech delay’
‘It’s normal for toddlers’
And sometimes it is a general delay. But sometimes it’s something more specific, like CAS.
There’s also been a huge rise in parents seeking information online, and CAS is often mentioned alongside speech sound difficulties such as:
phonological delay (pattern-based speech errors)
articulation difficulties (one sound that won’t come out clearly)
inconsistent speech disorder
These can look similar at first glance, which is why a specialist assessment matters.
Signs of childhood apraxia of speech in 2–5 year olds
Children develop speech at different rates, and not every unclear speaker has CAS. But here are some common features that may raise a flag, especially when you notice several together.
1) Inconsistent speech errors
Your child might say the same word in different ways:
‘banana’ → nana / baba / mana
‘daddy’ → gaga / daddy / dadi
This inconsistency is one of the biggest clues.
2) Difficulty copying words on request
Some children speak more easily in natural play, but when asked ‘Say ___’, they freeze or the word becomes much harder.
3) Limited sound repertoire
They may use only a small set of consonants (like /M/, /N/, /B/, /D/) and avoid others.
4) Vowel distortions
Many children with typical delays mainly struggle with consonants. But in CAS, vowels can also sound ‘off’ or change between attempts.
5) Speech that sounds effortful
You might notice your child:
pauses between sounds
tries multiple times
looks like they’re ‘searching’ for the right mouth movement
6) Longer words are much harder
‘Car’ might be easier than ‘carry’, and ‘carry’ easier than ‘caterpillar’.
7) Prosody differences (rhythm and stress)
Some children with CAS sound a little unusual in their speech rhythm, stress, or intonation.
8) Frustration or reduced confidence
When a child is frequently misunderstood, they may:
talk less
use gestures more
become upset when asked to repeat themselves
Important note: none of these signs alone prove CAS but they are a strong reason to seek a speech assessment rather than waiting.
CAS vs phonological delay vs articulation difficulty (quick guide)
These are some of the most common questions I hear.
If it’s mainly an articulation difficulty…
A child may consistently say one sound incorrectly (for example, ‘thun’ for ‘sun’- lisp- but everything else is developing well.
If it’s mainly a phonological delay…
You might notice clear patterns, like:
leaving off the ends of words (‘ca’ for ‘cat’)
swapping back sounds for front sounds (‘tar’ for ‘car’)
Patterns are often consistent and respond well to phonology-based therapy.
If it might be CAS…
Speech often feels less predictable, harder to imitate, and more impacted by word length and complexity.
If you’re unsure, that’s completely normal, and exactly why assessment matters.
What happens in a CAS assessment?
A high-quality speech assessment for possible CAS usually includes:
1) Parent discussion and developmental history
We talk about:
pregnancy and birth history (where relevant)
feeding history
early sounds and babbling
first words and how speech has progressed
family history of speech/language needs
2) A speech sound assessment
Your child might be shown pictures or play-based prompts so we can hear:
what sounds they can say
what they simplify
whether errors are consistent or inconsistent
3) An oral-motor and movement check
This isn’t about ‘strength’. It’s about coordination and planning. We look at how your child manages speech movements and transitions.
4) Stimulability testing
This means: how easily can your child learn a new sound or word with support?
For CAS, we often explore how they respond to:
slowed-down speech
visual cues
rhythm/tapping
short, simple syllable shapes
5) Functional communication and confidence
We look at how speech impacts daily life:
being understood at nursery
joining in with peers
asking for help
managing emotions when misunderstood
At the end, you should leave with:
a clear explanation of what we think is going on
a therapy plan
practical home strategies
realistic next steps
What parents can do at home
Here are CAS-friendly strategies you can start right away.
1) Choose ‘power words’
Pick 1–2 words that matter most in your child’s daily life, such as:
more
help
mummy
again
stop
open
These words are motivating and functional.
2) Keep it short and successful
For many children with CAS, the goal is quality over quantity.
Try five minutes a day rather than 30 minutes of struggle.
3) Support speech with rhythm
Some children benefit from:
tapping a beat on the table
clapping syllables
using a gentle ‘marching’ rhythm
This can help the brain organise the sequence of movements.
4) Celebrate approximations
If your child says ‘moh’ for ‘more’, that’s communication!
We want them to feel:
safe
understood
proud to try again
Confidence is a key part of progress.
A short parent story (anonymised)
One mum said to me:
‘We kept being told to wait. But I could see my child understood everything; they just couldn’t get the words out. Once we had an assessment and a plan, it felt like we finally knew what to do. The biggest change was his confidence. He started trying more.’
When should you seek support?
You don’t need to wait until school.
It’s worth getting an assessment if your child is:
hard to understand compared with peers
becoming frustrated or withdrawing from talking
inconsistent with words they used to say
struggling to imitate speech sounds
showing signs that match CAS
Early support can reduce stress for the whole family and help your child feel successful in communication.
Here’s how I can help:
✅ A detailed speech assessment (including whether CAS is likely)
✅ A clear therapy plan with realistic goals
✅ Practical home strategies you can use immediately
✅ Support for nurseries and schools (where needed)
✅ In-person sessions in North-West London and online options
Your child is communicating the best way they can, and with the right support, speech can become easier, clearer, and more confident.
Sonja McGeachie
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
When working with Gestalt Language Processors, it is always advisable to use child-led therapy. What does that mean? Child led therapy involves following a child’s interests and allowing her/him to lead the play activity throughout the speech and language therapy session. In other words, instead of having my own ideas of what we might want to play with or what activities I might try and use, I provide a range of toys I know the child likes or has played well with before; then I wait for the child to pick what she/he enjoys doing.
Play can be very repetitive and we can often see our child cycling back to the same one or two toys throughout the session. But this is what she/he needs to do at that time and it means that we have focused attention and engagement. This in turn is very helpful for the therapeutic process, which is to offer great scripts and phrases/words alongside what she/he is playing with.
Monotropic minds
Often the mind of autistic children is more strongly pulled towards a smaller number of interests or hobbies as I like to call them. Dr Dinah Murray, Dr Winn Lawson and Mike Lesser have found in 2005 that autistic people have ‘monotropic’ minds. They explain that autistic children focus their energy on a narrow range of activities as the energy required to switch between several toys is much higher than we would see in the neuro-typical population.
Gestalt Language Processors are often also Gestalt Cognitive Processors. This is when experiences are retained as episodic events and memories. An event is remembered by specific parts of the same event. And, therefore, these specific parts should always be part of that event, when the event is repeated.
Should any of the specifics be changed or are missing, then this can cause great upset to Gestalt Cognitive Processors. So, for example, if the last two times in speech therapy we had the train set out and this was played with happily, then this becomes a specific part of the whole session. If, I then don’t offer the train set the third time a child comes to see me, this could be very upsetting.
This is why I tend to try this out and see what happens. Usually in the 3rd or 4th session: I might not bring out the car run that has hitherto been super successful to see if we are able to transition well to other toys. If yes, then we can have new experiences but if not then I will re-offer the car run/or whatever toy pretty quickly so as not to cause complete dysregulation.
A few pointers below which help with child-led play:
Introduce a few new toys and see what happens
Parents are encouraged to bring some familiar toys their child likes to the session. We can then introduce a couple of different toys to see how we go. Try offering a new toy alongside the familiar one; try offering new toys without the familiar one present, but be prepared to re-offer the “old” toy should our child get upset.
Rotate toys and don’t offer out too many toys
I find that children can get overwhelmed and overstimulated by too many items out all at once. I always talk to parents about toy rotation at home and I encourage storage and ‘tidy up’ of toys so that we can increase attention focus, and also maintain freshness and new interest in older toys.
Some children are not yet ready to play with toys
Here I suggest people games: these are games where the adult becomes part of a more motor-based activity. Some call it ‘rough and tumble play’ but it can be nursery rhymes such as sleeping bunnies/row row the boat or peek-a-boo for the younger ones.
Copy/Imitation is so important – try getting two identical or similar play items
When we are copying our child, it is often not desirable to ‘take turns’ with their toys/blogs/cars etc as our child may not be ready to let us take a turn. Instead, if we have the exact same toy that our child is having then we can play alongside our child and copy them perfectly without interrupting their play.
References:
Murray, D., Lesser, M., & Lawson, W. (2005). Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism. Autism, 9(2), 139-156.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
